Lost and Found
by still burning bridges
Summary: They're nobodies - but who said they can't be nobodies together? The odd lot of rugged wanderers are all damaged goods. She wants to forget. But he's back, and he is determined not to make the same mistake he did on the last day of their seventh year.


**Okay, talk about an edit. I am completely redoing this story…I **_**hate **_**it. So, I am rewriting the entire storyline-it will be a normal LJ story-Petunia hates Lily. I know, I know-it's hard to find AU LJs, but hey! I had a creative spark that I had lost for this story, but I didn't want to leave you all hanging. So, now-We have a new summary, loves! Please don't be ultimately pissed off at me. Please? I mean, they still survive! They still get to raise Harry! It just happens differently! Please don't hate me! I swear by Merlin's moldy old deodorant – this is a hell of a lot better than the old one ever was.**

**SUMMARY-**Her parents are dead. Her best friend is in Greece for two months. Her other best friend was lost a long time ago. She doesn't know where to go…Her sister hates her. So she wanders…and she finds a little girl and her dog in a similar predicament. A funny group-an abandoned witch, a homeless child, and a mangy dog who all share a common reality-they are alone. They are nobodies- but they decide to be nobodies together. When a messy-haired wizard and his rebellious partner – in – crime stumble upon the odd cluster of rugged wanderers, she knows that it's time to face her past – even if it breaks her heart.

_And these old wings, _

_have been a long time,_

_Been a long time coming,_

_These old wings…_

_Just gotta be good for something,_

_Burn these strings, _

_so I can see all kinds of broken things…_

_If these old wings can—fly…_

**-Anna Nalick, **_**These Old Wings**_

**CHAPTER ONE: **It's Time to Walk Away Now

"And never come back!" A girl with hair the color of fire and green eyes that used to hold a feisty spark stumbled backwards as her own sister slammed the door to the yellow house. She tumbled awkwardly down the rickety wooden stairs and fell on her back on the damp dirt of the sidewalk. Tears were streaking down her face. Her eyes were baggy, bloodshot, and deadened.

Slowly, she managed to prop herself up on her elbows and grip the post of the stair railing. She pulled herself wearily up and glanced sadly at the small yellow home that used to be so beautiful to her. But then she looked away, because there were so many memories that she just couldn't bear to relive- they were too happy. She did not want to remember being happy, because that would just remind her of what she had lost, what she used to be that she wasn't anymore.

And with not one possession to her name but her wand, she began to walk down the winding dirt driveway. There was a limp in her step from twisting her ankle during her fall from the porch, but she managed to get through the pain. The emotional pain far outranked it. She had two options, at this point: go to Severus' house and beg, or wander until she found someone else willing to take her in.

Against her survival instincts, she decided on the latter. She couldn't bear to face even more of what she had lost- what she had not been strong enough to keep.

She let him go. Maybe if she had stayed with him, forgiven him, he would have stayed with her, not gone to the Dark side. She let him down; she gave up on him too quickly. It was _her _fault that Sev had gotten that horrid, awful, disgusting Mark. That he'd decided on the wrong side.

And so when she finally reached the end of the dirt driveway, she did not take the left turn that would bring her to her old friend's broken home. Instead, she turned right, a decision that might dictate the rest of her life. She would always have doubts about that single moment. She might always ask herself what would've happened if she had gone to that black house. But she didn't regret it.

She never regretted it.

And so she walked. She walked past young Arabella Figg's house and past old man Ricky's mobile home. She walked past the lemonade stand set up by a tiny eight year old girl that morning; walked past the small stretch of playground where she had played so happily as a young child. She walked past the large oak she used to climb with Alice when she would visit, and past the expanse of meadow where she had first met Severus, where she had first learned she was a witch. She had to fight the urge to go back, to beg Petunia to let her stay, because she knew very well what Dumbledore or Alice or Severus or the arrogant jackass she had come to be friends with during their time together as Head Students would say. "It's time to walk away now."

And it was.

By the time she got into town, it was raining. It was hardly even _town. _She was a few steps onto Main Street, where there were old, rickety houses and antique shops. That was where she heard it.

A low, whimpering sound - had it not been totally silent otherwise, it would have slipped her ears. A quiet sobbing, a whining, a soft baying were just barely audible as she walked. Slowly, it got louder, to the point where she could make out that it was a dog making the baying and whining sounds. But what, exactly, could be emitting the sobbing-the whimpering?

She turned suddenly when it she heard a tearing sound - the first loud sound – and she knew what was making the sounds.

She saw down the deserted alley, a large dog with what she was _pretty _sure was grey fur, but it was so bloody dark that she could hardly see anything anymore. The only reason she saw what was beside the dog was because of the bright orange shirt and the glow of the almost-full moon. A tiny frame that was shaking violently, two legs stretched out in front of it. Lily didn't know what possessed her to walk briskly down the alleyway towards what she presumed to be a little girl, but all of a sudden she was kneeling down in front of her, feeling a whole lot more emotion than she had in such a long time.

"Love, why are you crying?" She asked in a gentle tone, trying not to frighten the violently sobbing young lady. The girl looked up in surprise, with tears falling silently down her pale cheeks, and Lily was startled by the girl's eyes. They were a deep blue - a color of the sea so real and wise that they pierced your very soul and seemed to find out your secrets in just a glance.

"Who – _hic – _are y-y-you?" The small girl stuttered out, occasionally interrupted by a small, broken sob that she could just not for the life of her swallow back.

"My name is Lily," Lily replied softly, and touched the girl's shoulder lightly. "Why are you out here all alone?"

"I-I'm not _alone," _the girl managed to protest, "S-s-Sammy is here with – _hic – _me, too." She gestured to the dog beside her, who was now standing over the girl protectively.

"But where are your parents?" Lily pressed, trying to pry.

With that, the girl burst into a new round of tears, howling out her sorrows into the grey dog's soft-looking fur. Lily nestled up beside her, because she knew that they both needed somebody so badly, and she could almost feel the nobody – ness radiating off the girl and the dog and she decided that since she was a nobody, as well, they might as well be nobodies all together.

After the girl managed to control her reckless crying, she peered up at Lily with those ocean eyes and muttered something so quietly that Lily would not have been able to hear it had she not been listening. "I'm Holly."

Lily almost, _almost, _mustered a smile at that. She held out her hand and replied, "Why are you out here with just your dog?"

The girl named Holly took a deep breath before squaring her jaw and speaking. "My-my m-mom – _hic – _disappeared. I t-tried l-living on my own, but w-we ran out food. I'm s-so h-_hungry…_"

Lily caught her bottom lip between her teeth and gnawed on it before resolving. "Holly, you and Sammy can come with me. My parents are dead – my sister kicked me out – but I graduated, so I can get a job and support us. I might even be able to take night classes and get a really, really good job that pays well so we can live in an actual house. For now, we can live in an apartment – and we'll always have food – and you'll go to school and all of that."

Holly stared up at her, her blue eyes disbelieving. "You'd – _hic _– do th-that f-for – _hic _– me?" She mumbled in what could only be shock.

"Of course," Lily said, like it should be bloody obvious. "I mean, we're both nobodies." And maybe it was the cold or the hunger or the sadness, but Lily would've sworn to Merlin that Holly cracked a smile at this. "So I figured…Why not be nobodies together?"

Holly peered up at Lily, a tiny little toothy grin gracing her face, and for the first time for as long as she could remember, Lily felt hope. A tiny flicker, the spark before the flame, but however small it was, it was there. "I think Sammy and I'd like that." And she stood up, and tugged on Lily's shoulder, and said, "C'_mon, _Lily, let's _go!" _

"Okay, okay, Miss Mistletoe!" And Lily didn't know _where _ in the _hell _that bloody nickname had come from, but Holly grinned up at her, her eyes all sparkly and such, and told her how much she loved nicknames.

"And your nickname, Lily, shall be Petal." And Lily was shell-shocked, frozen on the spot because she hadn't seen it before, but this little girl was _so much like James. _They had both given her the exact same bloody nickname, for Merlin's sake!

"You know, Mistletoe," Lily smiled as they walked, hand – in – hand, "you remind me of someone I used to know. You want me to tell you some stories about him?" She asked, inclining her head.

Holly nodded frantically, her eyes wide and excited and Lily found herself feeling so sad for her because she was bloody beginning to think that no one had ever cared for that little girl – who couldn't _possibly _be _any _older than five or six – properly before in her entire life. But she kept walking and she smiled.

"His name was James," she began. "I went to school with him. We first met on the train to school…"

"You took a _train _to your school?" Holly gasped. Lily chuckled quietly and nodded.

"You see, I went to a special school – but that's a story for tomorrow. For now, just let me tell you about our dear Jamesie – Boy. You see, for years, I thought he was and arrogant, spoilt ja – _ahem – _erm, jerk – and I hated him. After all, he was the reason my best friend abandoned me, right?" Lily sighed and closed her eyes momentarily. "No, not right – I wasn't right about that at all. The only thing James did was force me to accept that my best friend had sided against me. But I was blinded by hatred, you see. He kept asking me out. A dare or something, I presume. He never seemed very downtrodden afterwards, anyway. But in my last year of school," she continued, "we had to work together. We became friends. And I realized something on the last day of school – it was seven years and six hundred eighty – nine instances of my claiming to hate him too late, but I realized for the first time that I was in love with the egotistical brat."

"You love him?" Holly murmured, staring up at me serenely.

I nodded. "I have since…God, I couldn't even tell you how long I've loved him. I hated him at the beginning of the year. It might've been around the time he took me to the kitchens on my birthday. Oh, I remember that…"

**PAGES: **4

**WORDS: **2,007


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